The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a framework to address global priorities for the period 2015–2030. At the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), we used the SDGs as a framework to understand how academic research connects to global challenges and to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Based on an existing automated allocation scheme that aligns the SDGs to research publications, we identified Penn faculty members whose outputs connect to one or more of the Goals. Our analysis includes documents published between January 2018 and January 2023 authored by Penn’s tenured, tenure-track, and associated faculty. We mapped 1824 connections to the SDGs from the work of 1142 faculty members. Our results yielded two key outcomes. First, we developed an empirical analysis of internal strengths to address critical environmental challenges. Second, we utilized the identified connections to create a faculty database and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. Our findings are available in an online dashboard and encourage Penn faculty members to request datasets. Our work to date has shed light on limitations and opportunities posed by using automated classification algorithms to tag research aligned with the Goals. It has also enabled discussion about potential forward-looking research priorities. This article outlines our approach and presents future steps in our ongoing endeavor to foster interdisciplinary research and address the most significant environmental challenges of our time.